Does Entrapment Ever Work?

In this episode, criminal defense lawyer and former prosecutor Shaun Yurtkuran breaks down one of the most misunderstood defenses in American criminal law: entrapment.

What does entrapment actually mean? Are undercover cops and FBI agents allowed to lie, create fake businesses, run fake bribery schemes, and pretend to be criminals? Where is the legal line between uncovering crime and creating it?

Shaun explains why entrapment defenses almost never succeed, how prosecutors use recordings and undercover operations to prove “predisposition,” and why juries usually come back to one simple question: “Why didn’t the defendant just say no?”

The episode also discusses famous entrapment cases involving John DeLorean, Jacobson v. United States, and Sherman v. United States, along with the psychology behind why some jurors distrust undercover government operations while others see them as legitimate law enforcement tactics.

Plain English legal analysis from both the prosecutor and defense perspective.